Alfa

Jim That is wonderful to know. Thank you very much. I must upload some photos when I get a mo. Adam..

Adam the serial number should be on the inside of the left glove box door Hi John I have those numbers, thank you. They are Chassis = SEL 685 5080416 Engine = SE 13168 I have not managed to find any other body number or such. And the model is given as Croydon, of course. Adam..

Thank you very much. That is just the sort of confirmation I was hoping for !!

Does anyone know if these manifolds are still available anywhere? Adam..

I had a quick look for a body number and failed to find one in either front door apperture. I will try to have a better look at the weekend. Is the chassis number any help in tracking the origin? Adam..

Hi Jim Thank you very much. I will have a look for the body number and get back to you. It would be nice to know a little more about the origin. The headlamps are not as you describe, so it would be interesting to check on the numbers. Adam..

The shackles in the pics look exactly like the ones on my 48 22nd series eight. So I bet they are interchangeable. In Wes`s case, they do look as though the strength is compromised by the extensive corrosion. I would look for another pair. However, they are very stout for the job they are asked to do. Corrosion aside, I would not worry about metal fatigue. Do examine them minutely for cracks though. Then clean them up and re-use. I always paint mine with copper grease, which will prevent future corrosion and allow the nuts to be torqued correctly. Adam..

Hi John Thanks for your thoughts on the adaptations for the UK market. Certainly my car has a 12V electrical system and semaphore trafficators (now supplemented by flashing indicators on the bumper brackets). It also has the overdrive transmission, with freewheeling, but not the automatic clutch that I have read about in the handbook. It was supplied new by a company called Laughton-Goodwin in Kidderminster, in the west of England. You are quite right about the photgraph. That was done for an article in Classic and Sports Car magazine back in the mid-eighties. The location was my uncle`s horticultural nursery, which the photographer felt had an industrial feel which complemented the art deco styling. The car still looks exactly the same today. Where did you come across the photo? I am afraid that I have never met Mr Hickingbotham, nor seen his car. I am intrigued by your C9 coupe. The coupe Airflows look very interesting. Do you have much work to do on it? and is that the eight cylinder engine?

Hello John I have seen a couple of other Airflows in the UK. But only that many and they do not come out very often. One question I have never managed to answer for myself is about the Croydon cars. They were 6 cylinder SE Airflows (all 4 door??) badged as Chrysler products for the UK and assembled from CKD Kits brought over from the US. Or were they brought via Canada to avoid import duty as with the "Empire built" McClaughlin Buicks? Anyway, I have never managed to establish whether the Croydon was indeed a 6 cylinder chrysler Airflow, or was it a De Soto Airflow badged as Chrysler for the UK? I notice that parts suppliers list Chrysler and De Soto parts separately and it would be nice to know the difference. BTW, I have sent you an e-mail. Adam..

Thank you John, my car is also a Croydon. It has the 3 bar bumpers and the raised "peak" grille on the bonnet. It also has leather seats and carpet front and rear, which I believe varied from model to model. It was supplied new in the UK. It is a good original car, although it has been off the road for some years whilst I found a replacement exhaust manifold as the old one burnt away underneath and cracked into two pieces. I now have a new manifold and need to fit it, hence the search for gaskets. Over the past few years, I have deserted the fold and been playing with my Alfa, hence the Airfow has been languishing in the back of the garage for too long. My father bought the car in 1969, when I was 2. So I have no recollection of it arriving. My wife and I were driven to our wedding in the car though, and I have driven all over the country in it. Thanks for the advice on gaskets, and I shall make a new steering column seal whilst the steering box is unbolted to fit the manifold (right hand drive for those that are wondering how that could be necessary). I will try to find a photo of the old girl when I get a jiffy. Adam..

From what I've found a 6.50x13 crosses to a 185x75x13. Since I have no desire to dump a bunch of money into converting to 5 bolt etc, does anyone know where to source these in a narrow white-wall? All I can find are trailer tires or black-walls. Significantly, you are changing from cross-ply to radial construction if you make that change. Handling will be much improved, but make sure you change all four at the same time, if you go down that route. Adam..

Hey thanks Kevin! I am north of the 49th, but that doesn`t help much since I am in the UK. Thanks for the recommendation though. Also thanks to Keiser for the same. I will check them all out. Adam..

I am looking for a manifold gasket for my 1935 Airlfow 6. The engine number is SE 13168. The gasket is in 5 sections and is copper-asbestos type. I would willingly buy a full engine gasket set as the other parts would be useful too. Does anyone know a good contact for gasket supplies for an Airflow? Whilst I am here:- can I ask about the front windscreen sealing rubber and the cowl vent rubbers? Also the rubber gasket that fits around the steering column where it passes through the firewall? I would like to find these too if possible. It might be easier than making them. Thank you Adam..

Hi Lakeside. I am glad to hear that you are not selling the two Fords. You have two lovely motor cars there and family heirlooms too. As for the Model A, Matthew provided the link that gave a lot of good clues to preparation. It is good advice to drop the sump pan and clean it out. (Gaskets are available from the specialists). Then refill with a low detergent engine oil, say SAE 30. I use a mono grade "classic" oil, but a low spec 20/50 multigrade would be okay. Expect to change the oil every year, in future. I would also drain and refill the coolant using a 30 % antifreeze mix. Use the old type ethylene glycol antifreeze (Not the modern types with OAT technology, it is harmful). I would remove the spark plugs and pour a capful of oil into each bore (remember that the spark plug is above the valves, so i use an oil can with a piece of flexible tubing on the end to sqirt the oil around the corner into the cylinder bore). Also clean and gap the plugs whilst they are out. You will need to remove the points from the distributor and brighten the contacts with fine wet or dry paper or a small file. (remove all swarf carefully). Then replace the points and gap to 0.013". (someone will chime in with the correct gap!!). It may be worth removing and cleaning out the sediment trap next to the petrol tap, and the carburettor float bowl to make sure there is no sediment or petrol resin around. I find that solvent brake cleaner is great for removing petrol varnish. After that, fit a new battery and you should have a good supply of oil, water, petrol, and sparks so she should go. Check to see that it is charging, once running. I would also grease everything on the chassis (jack the car up to take the weight off the kingpins to do this) and I would remove the brake drums to clean, check and adjust everything (including checking and packing the wheel bearings as necessary). The great thing about an A is that there are no brake cylinders to seize or leak. A model A has good brakes (mine would skid the wheels) and great top gear performance plus a really simple crash-chang box (double declutching is really easy), so thay are a blast to drive. Have fun!! Adam.. PS. Please let us know how you get on, and with the V8 too.

All the above is excellent advice. Given that you have good compression pressures in all but one cylinder, and that the low one is still with 10% of the others, I would not worry too much about loss of compression. A cylinder leakage test would be an excellent idea as this allows for diagnosis in that you can hear where the air is escaping. One final thought; does the car have a stainless exhaust? Stainless steel is a very poor heat conductor and tends to cause more steam at the tailpipe, and for longer, because the exhaust gases remain warm until they reach the tailpipe exit. It may be nothing more serious than this. Adam..

It is indeed a 1929 Sport Coupe. I used to have one like it except mine had the wrong wheels. Nice looking car. They are great fun to drive. Adam..

Hello Jonny Clearly your brake systems is safety critical and the heart of the brake system is the master cylinder. If you do not know the age or condition of the current parts, you really should rebuild the whole system with new seals in the mastercylinder and wheel cylinders. Also check or replace the flexible hoses, which can breakdown internally causing a blockage. You owe it to yourself to ensure that your car is fundamentally safe and this is the only way to do that. Regarding the brake linings; if they are old they will contain asbestos. This is in many ways a superior product to the modern replacements, but has obvious health consequences. Essentially, make sure that you do not breath in any of the dust. When removing the drums, damp down the dust with a proprietary brake cleaner. I buy it in 5 litre tins and use a trigger spray, but you can buy aerosol cans in your local parts store. The cleaner will dry out without harm to the linings, unlike any other solvent cleaner. If you are scrapping the linings, bag them and dispose of sensibly. You local authority may have provision for this (they do here). However, if the linings are still good, I would clean them off and re-use. I tend to remove the glaze with coarse wet or dry paper, ignoring my previous warning about not breathing the dust (!). As for the handbrake; when stripping the back brakes, disconnect the cable and make sure that it is free and lubricated (it may be worth taking the cable off the car) and that the cable adjuster is slackened off. Then when you reassemble the back brakes, check that the shoes are adjusted correctly and the brakes all bled before readjusting the cable for length (never to correct for out of adjustment shoes). Then you should have a good handbrake. I hope that this helps. Please let us know how you progress. Adam..

My first car, at the age of 17, in 1983 was a Nissan Cherry (not sure what it was called in the US). It had an 1100cc engine and 4 speed gearbox, in metallic blue. I thrashed that car mercilessly and it always came back for more. It would lift the inside rear wheel when cornering hard and my friends would remark on my 3 wheel cornering exploits. 27 years later, when I am sitting as a magistrate, I have some empathy with the young motorists that come before me.

The first thing I would do is remove the sump and heads of that Olds engine and verify if it is as special as it is claimed to be. If you do fit it, with that kind of output, I fear that the transmission will struggle to survive. You may need to rethink that too. Which in a way, could be simpler. Adam..

Batteries are the same regardless of the earthing polarity of the car. There is no special battery for positive earth. They do vary for the position of the terminals (eg, top left and bottom right, or vice versa). The only effetc of this is making sure that your battery leads will reach. Model A`s start very easily, but I tend to go for the largest capacity battery that will fit in, just to make sure that I will not have a problem when using the lights and so on. Adam..

Yes, Chrysler. You have a lot of work ahead of you. Good luck !!

Hello John How nice to hear from you. I have a 1935 Airflow Croydon, which was the 6 cylinder car. It is a UK market car, but I think in the US these were sold as De Soto. The car is a sound original rather than restored condition, but well preserved. It is usually driven regularly, but is off the road at present as I am fitting a new exhaust manifold. I inherited the car from my father, who acquired it in 1969, I think. Being born in 1966, it has been in the family for longer than I can remember. I am not a member of the Airflow club, but keep meaning to join. I should really get around to it. Adam Moody England.

Sorry, mine is right hand drive, to drive on the left side of the road. Or is that what you are referring to? Adam..

You may well be able to rebuild your existing wheel cylinders, but a new master cylinder (still available) is recommended as it is so safety critical. You can rebuild all the cylinders provided the bores are good enough. All the rubber kits are available locally. My SE has different bore sizes at each end of the rear wheel cylinders for the "leading and trailing" shoes. I suspect yours will be similar. Once set up, the brakes are superb. Adam..

Hi Brad There is a healthy following for all vintage, post-vintage and classics cars in the UK and Europe, much as there is in the US. During the 1920s and 30s, US car makers had a good market in the UK with cars often imported in CKD form and completed locally (eg Chrysler) or "empire built" in Canada to avoid import duty (eg Buick), or else, manufactured in the UK (eg Ford T made in Manchester). These were all UK market cars so, built with right hand drive, UK lighting etc. Of course, there have beeen recent imports of collector cars too. I suppose many cars were destroyed in the WWII scrap metal drives, but many were laid up for the duration and have survived. My father collected pre-war US cars and I have inherited some from him, namely a Packard 533, Chrysler Airflow 6 and Model T Ford. The Packard and Chrysler are UK market cars, the Ford came from Norway in the 1970s. I would love an edwardian steam car, such as a White or Stanley, but they are very expensive these days. Adam..